By Jason Apuzzo. I saw The Social Network yesterday – and found it for the most part uninteresting. Despite some stand-out performances by Jesse Eisenberg, Justin Timberlake and Andrew Garfield the film failed to really grab me emotionally in any way. Part of the problem is that there doesn’t seem to have been anything particularly dramatic behind the rise of Facebook as a corporation. You could basically make the same movie about the rise of, say, Dunkin’ Donuts, to about the same effect.
[I hear Dunkin’ Donuts does over $5 billion in business per year, by the way. So don’t laugh.]
And so in lieu of spending hours writing a review about a film that didn’t grab me, on any level, I thought I’d post this video above that illustrates how David Fincher’s directorial style could quickly and efficiently be brought to bear in depicting the rise of other famous Silicon Valley ventures. Judge for yourself.
By the way, my understanding is that Mark Zuckerberg won’t be suing Sony, or any of the other people behind the making of The Social Network. They’re lucky, frankly. The people making the Google movie might not have the same good fortune.
By Joe Bendel. Ilich Ramírez Sánchez killed on behalf of just about every violent extremist movement of the twentieth century. Sheltered by the East German Stasi, he was most closely aligned with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). An ardent Marxist and notorious terrorist, Ramírez Sánchez is best known as the infamous “Carlos the Jackal” (though he preferred just plain “Carlos”). French director Olivier Assayas dramatizes his infamous crimes (and there are a lot of them) in his grandly ambitious five-hour, thinly fictionalized historical thriller Carlos, which screens in its entirety during this year’s New York Film Festival.
Soviet educated, the Venezuelan Ramírez Sánchez views the world through a radicalized prism. He is convinced “direct action” (meaning terrorism) is necessary to bring about supposedly progressive change. A promising volunteer for the PFLP terrorist network, Carlos steadily establishes a reputation for ruthlessness with a number of grenade attacks on cafes and an unsuccessful assassination attempt on Edward Sieff, president of Marks & Spencer and a prominent member of the British Jewish community.
Carlos forged alliances with the Japanese Red Army and extremist German Baader Meinhof/RAF splinter groups, acting more or less in concert. While he was not directly involved in the murder of the Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics or the hijacking of Air France Flight 139 (freed by the IDF’s famous Entebbe operation), he was personally charged with subsequent reprisal attacks. However, his greatest international infamy probably arose from his attack on the 1975 OPEC meeting, taking the cartel’s delegates hostage.
Ramírez Sánchez is an anti-Semitic mass murderer. His crimes have no justification. Wisely, Assayas does not really go down that road. While his Carlos has a certain animal magnetism and a voracious sexual appetite, the film never makes a martyr of him, unlike the terrorist agit-prop of Uli Edel’s Baader Meinhof Complex. Essentially Assayas shows Ramírez Sánchez going about his destructive business rather matter-of-factly, only occasionally paying lip service to some leftist cause, such as Allende in Chile. Yet, there are a handful of truly telling scenes, as when a former RAF accomplice remarks to Carlos how sick it is for Germans like himself to be killing Jews.
The five plus hours of Carlos are packed to the gills with violent intrigue. Yet, it’s all pretty well grounded in historical fact. Indeed, it is quite in synch with the facts established in Barbet Schroeder’s Terror’s Advocate, a documentary profile of Jacques Vergés, the attorney for Ramírez Sánchez, the PFLP, and just about every other terrorist of the twentieth century (who also briefly appears as a character in Carlos). Frankly, it would make a much better double feature with Assayas’s film than Edel’s love-letter to terror.
Edgar Ramírez is appropriately both charismatic and creepy as Ramírez Sánchez, nicely capturing the ferocity of extremism. There are also scores of effective supporting performances from its large but completely credible ensemble cast. Yet Carlos is much more a director’s film than an actor’s, seamlessly recreating complicated historical events around the globe and staging gritty action sequences with tick-tock precision.
Originally broadcast on French television, Carlos might be divided into three parts, but it truly is one unified film, entirely helmed by Assayas (unlike the three interlocking films of Red Riding). Truthfully, the 319 minutes is a long haul. As fascinating and absorbing as it is, most viewers will be desperately hoping for his capture by the final half hour. For those with short attention spans, there will be a two and half hour cut that will eventually screen at the Lincoln Plaza. However, if you are going to see a big epic film like Carlos, you should do it right and get the full experience. The full unvarnished and uncut Carlos screens this Saturday morning (10/2) during the 2010 NYFF.
By Jason Apuzzo. • Members of an Islamic radical group called the ‘Islam Defenders Front’ staged rallies in Jakarta, Indonesia on Tuesday, demanding the termination there of the gay/lesbian Q! Film Festival – indeed, demanding that the festival be shut down within 24 hours. The group has apparently threatened several venues in Jakarta associated with the festival, including the Goethe Institute, Erasmus Huis Dutch Cultural Center, Centre Culturel Francais Jakarta and the Japan Foundation – thereby effectively making this an international incident. This is one of those ugly little episodes that should remind everybody of who really persecutes gays and lesbians nowadays – namely, thuggish Islamic theocrats, not middle American Christians. [I’ll be waiting for Hollywood’s ‘tolerant’ liberals to make a movie about this story, by the way. Wachowski brothers, are you listening? Or Kevin Smith?] Let’s see how many film sites outside of Libertas pick up this story.
• On a more positive note, MTV is debuting the new poster for The Taqwacores (see left). We’ve been talking about this film for months, because of the hopeful tendencies it portends among today’s Islamic youth, and we’re very excited about its debut. The film opens in New York and LA on October 22nd.
• Everybody’s buzzing about Titanic 3D and Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace 3D opening within 2 weeks of each other in 2012. Frankly, I think this is great – I plan on seeing both. Both films have their strengths and weaknesses, and both have earned spots in pop culture lore for having pushed the boundaries of cinema spectacle – while also telling compelling stories. Of course, who am I rooting for in the box office race? Do you need to ask? I’ll be jogging later today in a Darth Maul T-shirt.
• Did you know that in 2012 we’re likely to have the ‘whitest’ Oscar season in years, due to the fact that so few minority actors are getting any award-season buzz? How is this happening? I thought our Betters in Hollywood were equitably distributing roles! I don’t understand this at all … except as the flower of hypocrisy.
By Jennifer Baldwin.Mad Men is not what one would call a “plot heavy” show. It’s more like a series of character studies — an exercise in atmosphere and style — and less a wham-bang, action-packed thrill ride. But every few episodes a season, Mad Men lets loose and the stuff really hits the fan. Secrets are revealed! Violence breaks out! Babies are born! Geopolitical events cause everyone to freak out!
Episode 10, “Hand and Knees,” is one of those “plot heavy” episodes. And yet, while everything seemed to go down in this one, nothing really came of it in the end (or at least, nothing yet…).
Lane got whacked with a cane by his stern father, so he’s going back to England. But the ramifications of this are still unclear. Joan, presumably, had Roger’s baby aborted (though there was debate at my viewing party over whether she went through with the procedure or not). But on the surface, Joan seems to have gone back to status quo.
Roger and Lee.
In probably the biggest plot development of the episode, Lee Garner Jr. told Roger that Lucky Strike is moving to a new agency, but again the effects of this shake-up are yet to be felt, since Roger hides the news from the other SCDP partners.
Even Don’s storyline, in the end, amounted to nothing (for now).
Everyone was on their hands and knees — some literally, like Don vomiting in his bathroom or Lane after the cane-thwacking, while others only figuratively, like Roger, pleading with Lee to give SCDP one last chance with Lucky Strike — but everywhere, these characters were falling down, weakened, reduced to the level of servants and criminals. And yet, all of these “hands and knees” moments happened in private — in those secret, almost clandestine moments between intimates that no outsider is privileged to see. I think this calls back to the theme in Episode 7 — that issue of intimacy, of and what it means to know another person — only this time we’re seeing the truly dark side of things, those relationships and aspects of the characters that are too horrible to let escape beyond the confines of an apartment living room or a private booth in a restaurant.
Joan and Roger.
Lane’s cruel humiliation at the hands of his father; Don’s complete breakdown at the thought of being arrested by the feds; Roger’s final failure as a business man with Lee Jr.; Joan’s face-saving lie in the abortion doctor’s office — all of these moments of humiliation are kept secret by the characters involved, none of them willing to let others know the depths of their shame and failure. In fact, when Lane reveals the secret of his relationship with Toni to his father, he’s “rewarded” with violence. By the end, in that last scene with the partners, Lane has learned to hold his tongue and keep his private vulnerabilities to himself.
Even Don is still burdened by secrets, still wearing the mask. He tells Faye the truth about his identity — she’s been granted special intimacy — but Don’s not ready to reveal himself to the world. He was on his hands and knees for most of the episode, but he’s not ready to stay there.
The theme of the episode couldn’t have been more obvious thanks to the music selection over the closing credits: an instrumental version of Lennon and McCartney’s “Do You Want to Know a Secret.” Everyone’s got secrets; everyone’s hoping they won’t get found out. But the meaning doesn’t stop there. A closer look at the lyrics reveals a more sinister tone:
Listen. Do you want to know a secret?
I promise not to tell.
There’s a slyness to this lyric, an implication that secrets will be told, it’s only a matter of time. The promise not to tell is empty. Who will be betrayed?
Closer. Let me whisper in your ear.
Say the words you long to hear.
Pete.
This suggests that the words the characters long to hear are not the words they need to hear. Don hears Faye say everything will be alright, he gets reassurances from Pete that everything’s been taken care of at the Department of Defense, but are these just empty words? Can the secret go away this easily?
The episode ends with a whimper and not a bang; most secrets stay hidden. But I have a feeling these secrets won’t last more than a week or two. Nobody knows much for now, but I get the feeling things are about to explode, much like the crowds at Shea Stadium when the Beatles took the stage. After all, there are only three episodes left.
Tony Curtis was something of a fixture in my household growing up – he almost seemed like part of the family. Isn’t it funny how movies stars can become like part of your family? Back when classic movies used to run on television much more frequently then they do now (classic movies having been – for better and for worse, relegated completely to Turner Classic Movies), Tony Curtis’ cherubic face and delightfully unsoftened Bronx accent would appear all the time on TV – and my father would stop and point at the screen and say, “Look – there’s Tony Curtis!” And I would look, and smile, and always for the same reason: that it just seemed so improbable that this charming, ethnic kid from the Bronx with the soft face and jarring accent would actually be a movie star. And married to Janet Leigh. And would be someone who played heroes, such as the the Viking Erik in The Vikings. All of it seemed so improbable – the kind of thing that could only happen in America.
He seemed to be living The Dream.
Only years later did I learn that things were much more complicated for him – that Tony Curtis (born Bernard Schwartz) grew up desperately poor, speaking only Hungarian until he was age 6. His father was a Jewish tailor, and the family lived in the back of the shop. His mother was apparently a somewhat abusive figure in Curtis’ life; she was at one point diagnosed with schizophrenia, a mental disease which may have been passed on in some form to Curtis’ brother Robert, who was institutionalized. Things were basically very tough for Tony Curtis in his young life. How tough? He and his younger brother Julius were at one point placed in an orphanage for a month because their parents couldn’t afford to feed them. Four years later, Julius was struck and killed by a truck.
This was his young life.
It seems like the movies were his solace. Apparently he saw Cary Grant in Destination Tokyo and Tyrone Power in Crash Dive, and this led him to enlist in the Navy and serve on a submarine tender. The funny part of it is, years later he would ‘serve’ on board a submarine with Cary Grant in Operation Petticoat, and also pull off a delicious Cary Grant imitation in Some Like It Hot. I guess that was his way of thanking a guy who’d inspired him, who’d helped pull him out of what had been a troubled and desperate life.
Tony Curtis as Erik in "The Viking."
You were always rooting for Tony Curtis in his movies. The reason, I suspect, is because he never quite seemed as handsome as Kirk Douglas, as commanding as Burt Lancaster, as volcanic and sexual as Marlon Brando, as brilliant and subtle as Laurence Olivier, as ruthless and passionate as Anthony Quinn. Tony Curtis was more like the rest of us, a regular guy from the Bronx who might easily be working (a lá Marty) in a butcher shop – except that this Jewish kid from the Bronx had make it big in Hollywood.
A few thoughts on the The Vikings, my favorite Tony Curtis film. So much of what makes that film compelling is how awkward Curtis seems – like a misfit – in the macho world of the Vikings. Kirk Douglas and Ernest Borgnine seem completely in their element in that film. Tony Curtis? Not so much. The cast of The Vikings is filled to the brim with people who are, alternately, either too beautiful or too sophisticated for Curtis to cope with – the impossibly gorgeous Janet Leigh as Princess Morgana, the cunning and wicked Frank Thring as Aella, or James Donald’s crafty Lord Egbert. [And don’t forget Orson Welles’ basso profundo voice narrating the film.] Curtis basically seems to have nothing going for him in this film except a Bronx accent and a grudge.
Having fun with wife Janet Leigh.
And yet … as the story unfolds, we gradually realize that there’s something we’ve underestimated about Tony Curtis’ character: his tenacity, a tensile inner strength – a passion for justice, perhaps? – that drives him far beyond what he initially appears capable of. Curtis’ ‘Erik’ character carries around with him an inner resource of integrity – nicely symbolized by the royal pommel stone around his neck – that will carry him through thick and thin, and against adversaries far more powerful and cunning than he is. This is the side of Curtis that always comes out in Act 3 of his films – the survivor, the tough Bronx kid who climbed out of a tragic life and made it to the top.
And so the character who begins the movie as a pitiful slave will eventually win both the throne of England – and the lovely Princess whom he prizes above all else. And all of it is credible, because Tony Curtis transforms himself convincingly over the course of the film from desperate schlemiel to bad-ass Viking conqueror, a hardened rival to Kirk Douglas’ fatally sentimental ‘Einar’ character. Does Tony Curtis give a great performance in the film? You bet he does – in fact, it’s iconic. I’ve always suspected, in fact, that the big emotional cues from The Empire Strikes Back were borrowed more or less unaltered from The Vikings, and from Tony Curtis’ performance specifically. If you’ve seen both films, you know exactly what I’m talking about.
Govindini and I had the chance to meet Tony Curtis a few years ago. He was, as you can imagine, courtly and old-school. He had a kind of impish charm that carried over from every movie performance I’d seen him give as a kid. You had the sense standing next to him that he’d lived a great life, and was grateful for the opportunity that America and Hollywood had given him. Even though the industry had to some extent forgotten him, he was neither bitter nor remorseful – the twinkle was still very much in his eye, and he was still living The Dream. Hell, what did he have to complain about? The man had enjoyed six wives – from Janet Leigh to Jill Vandenberg! Not bad for a Hungarian kid from the Bronx.
As we were chatting, he smiled at one point, looked Govindini over, and kissed her hand. Then he winked at me. I laughed. He looked and acted like a sweet young charmer that day, and I’ll bet he still is. I imagine he’s chatting up Janet Leigh somewhere right now.
By Jason Apuzzo. • The big news today is Lucasfilm’s announcement that the entire, 6-film Star Wars saga is going to be retrofit into 3D, and that the films will be released in series order (i.e., Episode I-VI) starting in 2012. This is fabulous news in my opinion, albeit not surprising. 2012 will mark the 35th anniversary of the original film, and George Lucas has been hinting for years that something like this was in the works.
This announcement will, of course, occasion a lot of uniformed pontificating about some of the bad 3D retrofits that have been released in the wake of Avatar. Two obvious factors mitigate such concerns here: 1) Lucas and his team have about 18 months until the first film is released, giving them a great deal more time than usual to do a high-quality retrofit – as opposed to the rush-jobs we’ve become accustomed to from this past summer; 2) Lucasfilm boasts the best technical staff in the industry, so we can assume the presentation will be state-of-the-art.
The Death Star trench run - soon in 3D.
Just for fun, I’ve put up a Star Wars student fan short (see above) I caught recently that was done in 3D. It was the winner of the “Best Animation” award from the recent Star Wars Fan Film Movie Challenge, sponsored by Lucasfilm. You’ll need your anaglyphic red/blue glasses for this one. [Make sure to get those, by the way, because I’d like to start showing more 3D stuff here at Libertas in the future.] Enjoy!
Incidentally, this means that the forthcoming Star Wars Blu-rays will subsequently need to be re-issued in 3D. They don’t call George a genius for nothing.
• In related 3D news, there’s a rumor circulating that Warner Brothers is pressuring Christopher Nolan to shoot the next Batman film in 3D – and also that Inception may get a 3D retrofit after all. Take that rumor for what it’s worth. Personally I doubt this story, because Nolan is currently The Man over at Warner Brothers, in the wake of Inception and his supervision of the Superman reboot. I would add that the vibe of the Batman series is more old-school retro/noir (largely contrary to the spirit of 3D) – although Nolan did shoot parts of The Dark Knight in IMAX, and he’s obviously fascinated with new technologies. As for Inception, there’s no point in doing a retrofit now anyway because it’s too soon for a re-release and there are too few home systems out there set up for 3D viewing.
For all the Wall Street excess that Stone’s new film depicts, the movie (spoiler alert — skip ahead to the next paragraph if you’d rather not know) in many ways offers a benign, even uplifting message about the Street. Sure, the fevered speculation drives one old-timer to take his life. But the movie ultimately tells the story of a young idealist — and one who gets the money and the girl to boot.
Even one of moviedom’s all-time unrepentant characters, the Wall Street sharpie Gordon Gekko, seeks, and (after a lapse) gains, redemption. Compared to the original, which sees said sharpie sent off to jail, this chapter of his story is almost.. heartwarming. Big business and the financial industry may have a deep skepticism for the current Democratic administration. But there’s little for them to dislike in a movie about them from the most outspoken of left-wing filmmakers.
This is why you need to read Libertas folks – we’re prescient here. What’s funny is that later in the article Zeitchik darkly intimates that Stone made such a “benign, even uplifting” film for crass commercial purposes – i.e., to sell out and make a buck! Unreal. Not even Oliver Stone can get his films cleared these days by the People’s Truth Commissions over at the NY and LA Times.
The bold designs of the new "Tron."
• Brett Ratner has just taken on Charles Robert Jenkins’ memoir The Reluctant Communist as his next project. This is great news, because this book is apparently one of the most harrowing accounts of life in communist North Korea that’s ever been written. The book deals with Charles Jenkins’ booze-driven defection as a U.S. Army sergeant to North Korea in 1965, a nation he would later refer to as “a giant, demented prison.” Jenkins would remain in North Korea for the next four decades – used by the communist regime as a propaganda prop – until the Japanese eventually arranged for his release. I think it’s very encouraging that Ratner is taking on this complex and interesting project, and we’ll keep an eye on how it develops.
• Do you recall Jessica Alba’s pseudo-nude shower scene in Machete? Of course you don’t, because you didn’t bother to see that film. Well, we learn today that Alba wasn’t actually nude in the scene when they shot it – she was apparently ‘digitally undressed’ in post! Forget 3D, this is the most promising development in digital technology yet! Imagine the possibilities. By the way, if you click over to this news piece – which 90% of our male readers will – you’ll notice that Alba also lost a little weight once the digital artists were through. So we have the perfect situation here: you ladies don’t need to take your clothes off on set, plus you get to lose a few pounds in the process. And everybody’s happy!
